False Memories EPQ

  What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm?    To understand the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm you must first understand what a paradigm is. A paradigm is a typical model or pattern of something. This paradigm is seen even at the encoding of memories in this task.    The task consists of subjects being presented a list of words that are semantically related (such as all having connotations of sweetness  like cake and chocolate) which they have to remember. After being shown the words and a delay between the encoding of that memory and the retrieval, subjects are asked to recall or recognise the words they remember from the list.      In the 'recognition memory' version of the task, subjects are asked if they remember seeing words given to them. Some of the words asked about are words actually presented and some are relating words that the subjects haven't been presented called critical lure words. In the majority of cases, the critical lure word i

False memories can be implanted seemingly seamlessly in a multitude of ways. I found a website that concisely summarised the ways that this can be done and it brought to my attention that I'd never explicitly made a reference the ways false memories are formed. Therefore I will here do so with my own theorised examples of when they'd occur from my understanding of the explanation given: Suggestion Interference of a true memory with added, incorrect post-event information which makes our brain add that information to the already formed memory. For example: Through leading questions that are asked after an event taking place. If after a house invasion, the victim was interviewed and asked if the criminal was wearing a blue coat or a black coat, they are unconsciously processing the new suggestion that the criminal was wearing a coat even if they didn't even have a coat on. So the new false memory of a coat is created and they may answer with what the brain automati

   As I become more invested in my research, I find myself veering towards a certain aspect of false memories that isn’t really encompassed in my original title. My initial question being ‘How do false memories corrupt the world around us?’. I have found a few sources of research which inspire me to look more into how an individual can be changed internally by false memories in terms of their emotions, relationships, and beliefs. I don’t feel that this is represented in the initial question. Therefore, my new, altered title is ‘How do false memories corrupt our identities and the world around us?’.         In a previous blog post, I had mentioned a few potential ideas for primary research and I have thought for a long time as to the benefits and reasons of conducting primary research and reasons against it. As a whole, I do believe that primary research in the form of interviews and questionnaires are very beneficial in gaining real insight into peoples opinions on certain topics howev

Time-management, strengths and weaknesses I am facing, and my project going further.    My second attempt at a time-management plan titled 'Updated, detailed time-management' was infinitely more successful than the first which gave me a much more clear way to effectively pick times in which completing this project's research should be done. For example, having a date picked in which i planned to complete a set of five research based blog posts meant that I felt motivated and even almost obligated to fit the deadline. This is because having separate short term and long term goals forced me to become self aware that by completing my short term goals, my long term goals would subsequently be closer to being achievable.      I've been consistent in the amount of time I have spent per week on collecting information from my sources, understanding and summarising them, and formulating my own subjective interpretations of the things I have researched. One thing that has bee

Why 'False Memory Syndrome' is an ill-conceived term:     In my personal opinion, the very reason why false memories attract my attention so much is the idea that this process that can affect people from minute details to whole identity crises is mundane and affects every one of us. It isn't some obscure mental illness which is only caused by extreme genetic abnormalities or situational factors. It is unavoidable and is the curious output of they way our brain innately makes mistakes.    False memory syndrome, by Psychology's description, is a condition in which a person's identity or relationships are affected by factually incorrect memories that they invest strong belief in. The reason why I personally criticise this idea is that this description matches so closely to the definition of false memories themselves. Subsequently, if virtually everybody gets false memories then based on this idea, everybody suffers from false memory syndrome. I understand the premi

   Nostalgia is the very feeling that wraps you up in a shroud of memories obscured and distorted by a rosy, idealised version of the past. The dictionary definition of nostalgia is a 'sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past' and almost everybody has had this distinct feeling. Rosy retrospective, reminiscence, even Freud's theory of screen memory all describe a similar event in our minds in which a memory is glossed over with other past memories to filter or screen out any negative recollection of an event.    Nostalgia, as currently theorised, is caused by a certain emotional state that we associate with a certain time period in our lives and deduct that any concurrent memories must have given us that very same emotion. Usually, hence the common phrase 'rosy retrospective', this memory that is assumed upon a memory is a feeling of happiness and rosy glee.    Very little conclusions have been made of what role the brain plays in nost